Poetic Terms Dictionary
Literary Movement

Imagism

Founded by T.E. Hulme; programmatically defined by Ezra Pound (1912); key figures include H.D., Amy Lowell, and William Carlos Williams.

Definition

An early 20th-century movement demanding precise, concrete images, economy of language, and free verse, rejecting abstraction.

Example

Pound's 'In a Station of the Metro' (1913): 'The apparition of these faces in the crowd: / Petals on a wet, black bough.'

Related Terms

Objectivism Free Verse Modernism Image